8-year-old noticed a boy holding back tears at football game, kindly offers him a seat until his dad arrives

8-year-old Donovan Shaw puts his arm around a young boy who was waiting for his father at the Seattle Seahawks pre-season game against the Oakland Raiders. (Photo: Chelsea Burke via Facebook)

Any sports fan can attest to the power of the game. It’s an unbridled passion that can unite us. But one act of unity at a Seattle Seahawks preseason game against the Oakland Raiders may remind you just how far a little kindness can go.

Donovan Shaw, 8, was attending the game with teammates from his junior football team, the Benson Bruins, when he noticed a young boy walking around the stands. The staff at the event assured the young boy that his father would be there soon to watch the game with him, but he still had tears in his eyes. The boy’s seats were rather high, and according to Donovan’s mother, Dana Clark, he was afraid of heights.

That’s when Donovan walked up to the boy and invited him to sit with him and his team until his father arrived.

Donovan was quick to take the boy under his wing and help explain the game that he loves. Another Seahawks fan was able to capture the moment, which she shared on Facebook.

“I asked him to sit down because I wanted him to feel better,” Donovan told Seattle Medium. “He didn’t know which one Russell Wilson was, so I showed him where Wilson was and other players.”

Dana wasn’t at the game yet, but when she found out what her son did for another person, she wasn’t surprised, but it did warm her heart. “That’s just how he is,” she told Yahoo Lifestyle. “He loves everyone and just wants to be friends with everyone. He saw a little boy tearing up. … Donovan pulled him down and talked him through it, comforted him for about 20 minutes.”

Donovan more than likely picked up his kindness from his mother. “His heart is always in the right place. I’m similar, I have a soft heart,” she told Yahoo Lifestyle. “I am very proud of him, it was a very mature thing. He’s my baby, he’s my little 8-year-old baby.”

Dana said that her son, now a third-grader, used to ask her why she would stop and speak to people she didn’t even know. She told him, “It does not cost you anything to be nice to someone. As a matter of fact, it will make you feel good to make other people feel good.”

Donovan shared that wisdom with the other young boy at the game. “I told him it was going to be OK because you should help people when they’re sad,” he said.

The Seahawks are honoring Donovan’s act by giving him two sideline passes to an upcoming game against the Rams, but he didn’t realize befriending another child would garner that type of praise.

“It is just in him, he wasn’t even aware of what he did,” Joyce Clark, Donovan’s grandmother, told Seattle Medium. “He just did it because it’s in his heart.”